Commission Orders Establishing PAYS® Precedents

Four states—New Hampshire, Kansas, Kentucky, and Hawaii—have authorized PAYS® tariffs. All are for state-regulated utilities. Additionally, a municipality approved a PAYS® tariff for its municipal water utility in California. Below is an annotated list of Commission orders.

New Hampshire

Order 23574 page 18 Section G discusses Pay As You Save® and why it should be considered.

Order 23758 was the order in which the NHPUC ruled it had the power to have charges run with the meter and disconnect for non-payment.

Order 23851 was the NHPUC’s approval of the Pilots prepared by the Energy Efficiency Institute, Inc. (EEI) and filed by two utilities, New Hampshire Public Service and New Hampshire Electric Cooperative.

Order 24417 required both utilities to continue offering PAYS over their and other NH utilities’ objections.

Kansas

The Kansas Corporations Commission first ruled on 8/16/07 in Dockets No. 07-MDWG-784-TAR and 07-MDWE-788-TAR its approval

On December 20, 2007, the KCC reconsidered its 8/16/07 order and reapproved its decision to authorize Midwest Energy to offer a PAYS® Tariff with Disconnection for Non Payment. (KCC-Reconsideration).

Hawaii

The Commission was ordered by the Legislature to implement PAYS®. In its October 24, 2006 Order No. 22974, the Commission cites its authority to implement PAYS® instead of just citing its obligation under state law. In its June 29, 2007 Order No. 23531 there is an important statement on page 35 where the Commission states disconnection for non-payment is sound public policy:

Indeed, by paying for the SWH system on their utility bills, the participating customers are effectively paying for electricity because the SWH systems result in electricity savings. Therefore, the commission finds that the disconnection of service for non-payment of the SWH system charges results in sound public policy.

On February 1, 2013, Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission in Order No. 30974 closing Docket 2011-0186 made Hawaii the first state in the nation to authorize a state-wide tariffed on-bill financing program. The order reads: “The commission concludes that any on-bill financing program should be structured as a service and tariff-based 2011-0186 30 program, rather than a loan-based program” (pp. 30 – 31).

Kentucky

Four public power utilities filed an application to operate pilot programs, Case No. 2010-00089, based on the PAYS® system serving a total of 200 – 300 customers split among the utilities depending upon demand for the program.

In spite of objections by the Attorney General, in its order, the Commission approved the pilot programs because they were voluntary tariffs and only 90% of the savings were allocated to pay back installation costs (2010-00089_PSC_ORDER).

Michigan

In its order of September 26, 2006 in Docket U-13808, the Michigan PSC approved what it called a PAYS tariff (failing to include the trademark symbol in violation of US Trademark law), though the order does not authorize charges to run with the meter, a key element of PAYS®. The order did authorize disconnection for non-payment.